Some will say it's about time. Others will believe that this return to the campaign was inevitable. With less than a month until the election, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are officially campaigning for the Democrats in the midterm elections, which will take place on November 3.
This is “one of the most significant elections in the history” of the United States, judges Barack Obama in a video posted on social networks. Both houses of Congress are now in Republican hands. The Democrats' objective is therefore to change one, or even both, chambers.
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But for Romuald Sciora, Franco-American essayist and director of the United States political and geopolitical observatory at IRIS, the mobilization of Barack Obama and the Clinton couple is late. “The donkey party has never lived up to its name so well,” he says. “No major voice from the Democratic Party has truly stood up for two years in the face of Trump's attacks on American democracy. The only opposition comes from moderate Republicans or Pope Leo XIV,” points out the New Yorker.
The Clintons
Hillary Clinton then became involved in spreading Democratic ideas through High Stakes, a podcast whose first issue was published on October 14. In this six-episode series which should accompany the campaign until mid-November, the former candidate for the 2016 presidential election collaborates with podcast journalist Kara Swisher. Discussions include the cost of living, health, political spending by billionaires and senatorial elections.
As for Bill Clinton, President of the United States from 1993 to 2001, he organized his first trip to Florida on October 20 to support David Jolly, Democratic candidate for governor of the state, against Republican Byron Donalds. In this particularly observed race, its objective is, to a certain extent, “to call on Hispanics to vote for David Jolly”, a repentant Republican, who joined the Democratic party in 2025, underlines Marie-Christine Bonzom, political scientist and former BBC correspondent in Washington from 1989 to 2018. “The Democrats have two missions: on the one hand, to integrate radical figures who are debated, including in the Democratic camp like Abdul El-Sayed and, on the other hand, bring out the big figures to ask donors, disappointed by the defeat of Kamala Harris, to put their hands in their pockets,” she continues.
“Hope and Change”
It is in part this dual mission that Barack Obama is taking on. He is the only one of the three tenors to show his support for Abdul El-Sayed, a controversial figure from Michigan, wishing in particular to abolish ICE and stop all military support for Israel. The former president will campaign alongside him on October 24 in Detroit. What Kamala Harris had already undertaken in September. “Barack Obama puts the interest of the party above all else,” says Marie-Christine Bonzom. Added to this is a collection of more than 13 million dollars from the Nobel Peace Prize, achieved thanks to half a dozen gatherings. In numerous advertising spots, he displays his slogan, faithful to that of his first presidential campaign, bringing up to date the word which gave birth to it in the eyes of the whole world: “Hope”. For 2026, he adds the term “Change”. In a video pinned to the Democratic Party's Instagram account, Barack Obama says he is “energized by the millions of Americans who are taking a stand and demanding change, even when it's difficult. That’s hope.” The former president from 2009 to 2017 never mentions President Trump by name, but expresses his opinion on the difficulties of the last two years.
Inflation reached 3.7% year-on-year in September, a direct consequence of the war in Iran and the rise in oil prices. According to American polls, the Democrats should obtain the majority of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives. It remains to conquer the Senate, which currently has 53 Republicans. To win, the donkey party must keep its seats and recover 4 from the Republicans. “The objective of the Democrats is their victory but it is rather a question of observing this election as a vote against the policies of Donald Trump,” underlines Romuald Sciora.
